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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. He is as ________________ as a wolf.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. degree — an amount
  3. stem — to come from
  4. cold — not warm
  5. lean — to bend
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. firm — decided
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. wind — moving air
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. firm — a company
  16. cold — an illness
  17. lean — to rest against
  18. row — to paddle
  19. degree — temperature
  20. firm — steady
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. row — a line
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. lean — thin

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com